Qingxuan's emotions churned violently, yet his expression was exceptionally calm. "This is the secret you mentioned? You haven't found any evidence. If that's all, I don't think saving you was worth offending Xuanji."
Fu Ze froze, then immediately said, "There's no need for evidence. When an entire family is like this, there are only a few possibilities. First, they have a special cultivation method. As the saying goes, masters can be found among ordinary people. That's entirely possible.
"Second, there's something unusual about their innate aptitude and bloodline. I'm an unorthodox cultivator. Unorthodox cultivators refine cultivators into Human Pills and consume them. Although these pills provide very obvious benefits, it's like drinking poison to quench your thirst. You can easily become burdened with karma, and then you'll most likely fail to survive your heavenly tribulation."
Fu Ze paused. "I got sidetracked... When my friend Dong Sheng was refining Human Pills, he once refined a cultivator with sword bones. That cultivator was only twenty-eight, but his cultivation had already reached Foundation Establishment Stage Great Perfection. He produced a gleaming golden pill. After Dong Sheng consumed it, his cultivation rose an entire realm in one go, straight from Foundation Establishment Third Layer to the Golden Core Realm."
"I would never consume Human Pills," Qingxuan said calmly.
"I know," Fu Ze said. "I'm only trying to explain that the Great Xia imperial family might have unusual innate aptitude. But by ordinary reasoning, a family with such unusual aptitude should need to intermarry to preserve the purity of its bloodline and innate traits. Yet I've investigated, and the Great Xia Imperial Clan doesn't restrict marriages to within the family. Both the main line and collateral branches marry the children of court officials."
"That is indeed suspicious," Qingxuan said thoughtfully. "Even with spirit veins at